THE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. (Sula bassana.)
These birds are insatiably voracious, but are somewhat particular in their choice of prey; disdaining, unless in great want, any food worse than herrings or mackerel. No fewer than one hundred thousand Gannets are supposed to frequent the rocks of St. Kilda; and of these, including the young ones, at least twenty thousand are annually killed for food by the inhabitants. The Gannet is somewhat more than three feet in length, and weighs about seven pounds. The bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point, where it is a little bent; its edges are jagged, to enable it the better to secure its prey; and about an inch from the base of the upper mandible there is a sharp process pointing forward. The general colour of the plumage is a dingy white, with a greyish tinge. Surrounding each eye there is a naked skin of a fine blue colour; from the corner of the mouth a narrow slip of naked black skin extends to the hind part of the head; and beneath the chin there is a pouch capable of containing five or six herrings. The neck is long; the body flat, and very full of feathers. On the crown of the head, and the back part of the neck, is a small buff-coloured space. The quill-feathers, and some other parts of the wings, are black; as are also the legs, except a fine pea-green stripe in front. The tail is wedge-shaped, and consists of twelve sharp-pointed feathers.
These birds chiefly resort to those uninhabited islands where man seldom comes to disturb them. The islands to the north, Ailsa Craig, on the west coast of Scotland, the Skelig Islands, off the coasts of Kerry in Ireland, and those that lie in the North Sea off Norway, abound with them. But it is on the Bass Bock, in the Frith of Forth, that they are seen in the greatest abundance. “There is a small island,” says the celebrated Harvey, “called the Bass, not more than a mile in circumference; the surface is almost wholly covered during the months of May and June with the nests of the Solan Geese, their eggs, and their young. It is scarcely possible to walk without treading on them: the flocks of birds upon the wing are so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud; and their noise is such, that one cannot without difficulty be heard by the person next to him. When one looks down upon the sea from the precipice, its whole surface seems covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swimming and pursuing their prey. If, in sailing round the island, one surveys its hanging cliffs, in every crag or fissure of the broken rocks may be seen innumerable birds, of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of heaven when viewed in a serene night. If they are viewed at a distance, either receding or in their approach to the island, they seem like one vast swarm of bees.”
THE SWAN. (Cygnus olor.)